It was pitch dark as we entered the theatre hall. We stumbled our way to the top and took our seats. We had been given special glasses to put on and told to ask for head sets inside and so we did. As we casually put them on we realized the show was about to start, so we quietened down.

Believe me, nothing would have prepared us for the experience we were about to have. It was as if we had slipped into a sound and deep sleep, the screen had vanished, the people gone, the aids disappeared and left was me on a mountain top watching archaeologists all around me, actually right beside me discussing what they were doing hanging in the midst of the sky ready to fall down a mountain, well climb down with aids, but that’s what it seemed to me from where I was, when I was actually still on my seat with a hundred more people around me. Then started the climb down when suddenly one of the two lost their balance, Oh my goodness! Small debris of separated pieces of rock came falling down and I was right below! I felt myself blocking my face trying to protect myself. Then suddenly blood gushed through my cheeks as I was blushing red when the person beside me was poking my side saying, “hey are you alright?” Again I came back to the realization that I was still sitting on a comfortable spongy seat of a theatre. Do you have any idea what I am talking about?

Well let me enlighten you, I was seated at a turning point of technology that was capable of virtually transporting you into a world of fiction and let you experience each and every move as if you were making it yourself, I was sitting in a IMAX theatre. Those of you who have had this experience will agree that it is capable of virtually lifting your soul out of its body and placing it in a completely different situation. It is amazing how they can play with your vision to such an extent. This triggered my curiosity to find out how they do this and this is what I found.

As soon as you will enter the theatre the difference will be obvious, the screen is much bigger than the screens you would see in a normal theatre. That is where the word IMAX comes from maximum vision. They are divided into two categories.

IMAX theatre
IMAX Domes

In an IMAX theatre a normal IMAX screen is 16 meters high and 22 meters wide but they can be even bigger. The largest can be about 30 meters high.

An IMAX Dome is four stories high and 76 feet in diameter, with views of 180 degrees that wraps around the entire theatre.

“How are these movies made?”

To make such huge and clear pictures they use huge film. Normal movies are made with 35 millimeter high and 4 perforations wide films. IMAX movies are made with films that are 70 millimeters high and 15 perforations wide. That is how they fill up the huge screen.

As you understand that the film is much bigger than of normal movies, IMAX movies are projected on entirely different kinds of projectors. The projector weighs over two tons and the film moves horizontally instead of vertically in the projector. The sound is projected with 84 speakers in the theatre.

Now coming to the question, “how does it transport you into the environment?”

This movie is made with two cameras, one image for each eye. So when you watch the movie each eye sees a different image coming from a different projector that brings about depth in the imagery. These images are kept separate with the help of polarizers that are like filters. Two different images are thrown onto the screen and then you are given special polarizing glasses that help each eye see different images at the same time.


My vision is a new era of education that will actually place its learners in the hot seat to experience all kinds of knowledge with first hand experience which means you will not have to wait to get into the real world to experience how it feels.